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KIMI Raikkonen has shocked Fernando Alonso to steal an epic Australia Grand Prix victory as Mark Webber's history of failure in Melbourne continued with a start-line mistake.

In one of the great races staged at Albert Park, Lotus driver Raikkonen defied fading rubber, his age, and the big guns of the sport.

The Finn defeated Ferrari giant Alonso to win his second Australian Grand Prix with a shock two-stop strategy.

After Webber's dream of winning the Australian Grand Prix was crushed on the opening lap when the Red Bull driver missed the start and sunk from the front row to seventh, Raikkonen - the man known as the "Flying Finn" - survived a late onslaught from Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to win by more than 12 seconds.

On another day of high-drama after Saturday's qualification cancellation, Alonso and Vettel appeared to be hurtling towards a two-man showdown following their third and final stop.

But Raikkonen refused to pit and hung on with burnt rubber to snare a great Albert Park win.

The second-oldest driver on the grid behind 36-year-old Webber, Raikkonen, 33, admitted he thought a race win was beyond him after qualifying in seventh place earlier in the day.

Red Bull drivers Vettel and Webber locked out the front row.

"I had doubts before the race because I didn't know how the race would go," Raikkonen said.

"But I knew I had a good car and didn't give up hope.

"I was a bit disappointed after qualifying.

"I made a mistake and I didn't get it right.

"But it was still 10 places better than last year and not a complete disaster.

"I knew my car was quite good and it was feeling good all week.

"I knew if we could make the front tyres last, it would be fine.

"It was the first race so we didn't know what would happen, but I survived."

Raikkonen celebrated but there were no smiles for the two Australian drivers.

Both Webber and Daniel Ricciardo's hopes were crushed on a gruelling day.

Webber was left in a hopeless battle after he went from second to seventh in the start-line bungle.

Forced to dig deep, he fought his way back up to finish sixth after slipping to mid-field during the race.

Ricciardo, the next big thing in Formula One, did not finish.

The Perth-raised Toro Rosso driver retired from his second home GP on lap 39 when his car had a mechanical failure.

"It seemed to be an exhaust issue," Ricciardo said.

"Unfortunately we could not get it fixed.

"We also had some issues before the race.

"It isn't good and I was really hoping to put in a good performance here.

"It didn't go our way, just put it that way."

Vettel powered into the clear and took the lap-one lead as Felipe Massa and Alonso hunted him down in a frightening dual Ferrari attack as the season-opening race roared into action.

It was clear that the race would become a battle of the rubber, with the super-soft compound tyre quickly degrading. The first round of pit stops began on lap five when McLaren driver Jenson Button came in.

Favourite Vettel faded as the Ferraris roared and Alonso passed the world champion for what was thought to be the effective race lead on lap 22 after a well timed pit stop.

But Raikkonen went on to steal the show with a pit-stop strategy that left his rivals stunned.

"I have to admit I was quite surprised when I was missing one position," Vettel said.

"In my calculations all the cars I saw made sense, but I never saw Kimi in the race.

"But he ended up way in front of us and I saw him on TV."

Raikkonen said the two-stop strategy was no fluke.

"That was always the plan," he said.

"It is always difficult to know in the first race, but we got it exactly right."